General Merchandising Manager

About Twelve

Twelve designs and builds the world’s most inspiring merchandise and packaging for the world’s most coveted brands. Applying our uniquely tested end-to-end methodology, we seamlessly integrate our expert teams and global supply chain to turn wild dreams into high-return realities. Our difference lies in our approach to partnership and our commitment to social responsibility—proudly B-Corp certified and working exclusively with vetted and approved partners. 

Summary

We are seeking a senior General Merchandising Manager to lead product and packaging programs for global brand clients.

This is a build-and-lead role focused on strengthening merchandising discipline, scaling team capability, and formalizing processes across development, sourcing, and production for alignment with commercial realities. It combines strategic category leadership with hands-on execution, entailing high ownership, high pressure, and high influence - operating at the intersection of client expectations, manufacturing realities, and commercial targets.

You will own key accounts end-to-end — from partnering with global development teams through shipment and delivery — translating briefs into profitable, scalable product assortments while balancing trend relevance, cost engineering, packaging innovation, and manufacturing feasibility.

Key Responsibilities

Category & Commercial Leadership

Develop private label product architecture (pricing tiers, margin targets, assortment strategy) that support fast-growing global accounts across beauty, CPG, and accessories.

Lead key client projects, coordinating internally according to commercial needs.

Translate brand and product briefs into scalable, profitable product programs.

Oversee full lifecycle for projects from Development → Proto → PPS → PO → Production → Inspection → Shipment → Financial Closure.

Partner with internal stakeholders to identify and resolve risks impacting timeline, quality, or cost.

Enforce structured workflow control within the merchandising team and cross-functional partners

Serve as commercial gatekeeper before PO release, production launch, and shipment.

Identify market gaps, trends, and innovation opportunities for product and packaging that align with key accounts.

Product & Cost Engineering

Review costing sheets, BOMs, and packaging specs

Enforce sample cost control and financial traceability (EST#/PO# discipline), monitoring material fluctuations.

Review product and/or packaging specifications to ensure design aligns with branding, compliance, manufacturability, and cost constraints.

Drive cost optimization with factory partners without compromising quality.

Execution & Risk Control

Lead pre-production risk reviews

Escalate and resolve pre-production or compliance risks quickly through sampling process

Participate in vendor performance evaluation and allocation decisions

Work closely with factory partners across the region to ensure delivering to the Twelve Standard.

Align development timelines with production feasibility, working closely with Sourcing Manager to anticipate new vendor needs.

Team Leadership

Mentor and guide a team of four merchandisers in region – elevating commercial acumen, process discipline and accountability.

Strengthen structured processes across programs to achieve KPI targets

Improve cross-functional alignment between development (US/EU based), Asia based sourcing, and quality teams.

Qualifications

10+ years in private label, OEM/ODM, or brand-sided merchandising.  

Proven ownership of end-to-end product programs, not just functional contribution.

Strong experience with product costing and packaging development within multi-SKU, high volume categories.

Deep understanding of complex manufacturing ecosystems.

Experience working with US and EU mass retail companies (Target, WalMart, Costco) or brands preferred.

Strong negotiation, financial, and risk management skill

Willing to travel on-site to the vendor sites to review samples and production of key projects.

Fluent English required; Mandarin preferred

What Success Looks Like

Margin delivery aligned to targets across scalable, repeatable programs

Efficient product-to-production timelines, reducing development to production cycle time.

High client retention and category expansion

Reduced escalations

This role is ideal for a commercially sharp, hands-on leader who understands both creative product development and disciplined cost management.

Open to candidates in Hong Kong or Shenzhen, China.